Winterscapes Contest Terms and Conditions

Winterscapes Awards and Photo Contest Details

Read the following rules, terms and legal conditions below before submitting any photos.

Rules, Terms and Eligibility Conditions

The Winterscapes Photo Contest is open to all Edmonton residents over 18 years of age.

No purchase is needed to submit a nomination to enter the Winterscapes Photo Contest.

Eligible and complete nominations for the Winterscapes Awards will be automatically entered into the prize draw. Weekly prizes for the photo contest are awarded based on a random draw from all eligible submissions for a given week. The chances of winning are based on the number of submissions received in a given week.

A winterscape must be visible from the street, which can include the yard in front of your residence, or the piece of land in front of your school, community hall, park or other group meeting location.

Prior to building a winterscape on property that is not owned by any member of the team, it is the sole responsibility of team members to request and receive consent from property owners and/or superintendents of the building or property.

Only one winterscape submitted in a given week per individual or group will be eligible for the weekly prize draw. If a new unique winterscape is submitted the following week, it will qualify for the new prize. Submitting multiple photos of the same winterscape creation will qualify for only one prize overall.

Winterscape locations must be well-maintained and tidy. This includes walkways that are free of snow and ice for the public, with a clear path to the building entrance.

Your winterscape should include at least one the following: colour, lights, snow, ice, or yard, garden and horticultural features. It must be self-made - no submissions of natural winter landscapes will be accepted.

Online Voting and Awards

All eligible photos nominated for a Winterscapes Award will be available for voting beginning March 4. Photos will be posted to the City of Edmonton and YegParks Facebook pages. Interested Edmontonians can vote for their favourite photo by clicking on it. Voting will remain open for one week. The five photos in each category that receive the most “likes” will then be subject to VIP judging to determine the top three winners in each category. Three finalists in each of the categories (Winter Garden, Winter Play, and Winter Art) will be selected to receive a Winterscape Award from an internal Judging Panel. A maximum of nine awards will be given in total. Photos of the nine finalists will be posted on the main City of Edmonton Winterscapes website.

How To Enter

There are two ways to submit your nomination:

Website form (available January 17, 2019)

By email to front.yards@edmonton.ca with photos attached. The administrator will contact you in return for more details on your submission.

Submissions will only be accepted during the nomination period (January 17 – February 28, 2019)

Photo Format and Content Criteria

Submissions may originate in any image format (JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIF) — including, but not limited to digital files, digital prints, and colour prints — so long as they are submitted electronically. JPG and PNG file types are recommended.

Any images submitted must be original and belong to the person submitting the photo, and the photographer has the right to authorize use and publication of the photograph(s). The photographer must declare that the photograph(s) have not been previously published or used by the City of Edmonton.

For privacy and security reasons, please do not include images of people or of pets/domestic animals in your photos. Refer to our FOIP policy.

All photographs should accurately reflect the subject matter, lighting, and the scene as it appeared. Photos that have been digitally altered beyond standard optimization (removal of dust, cropping, reasonable adjustments to exposure, color and contrast) will be disqualified.

The online nomination form must be completed fully in order for the nomination to be accepted. The limits for self-nominations and third-party nominations, as outlined above, are applicable.

Submission Deadlines

Online nominations can be submitted starting at midnight MST, Thursday January 17, 2019. Deadline for submitting nominations is 11:59pm MST, Thursday February 28, 2019. Finalists will be announced in late March 2019 on the City of Edmonton and YegParks Facebook pages. The City of Edmonton reserves the right to adjust any deadline(s) as the result of causes beyond its immediate control.

Prize Draw Announcements

Prizes for the contest are awarded based on a random draw from all eligible nominations. The chances of winning are based on the number of nominations received.

All residents who submit an eligible photo nomination will be entered into a draw to win the following prizes:

Prize draws will be completed and winners will be contacted by 4:30pm MST on each Thursday of the contest (January 24 – February 28, 2019), with the exception of the last week of the contest, where the winner will be contacted before 4:30pm MST on Friday, March 1. Some prizes have event dates associated with them. To ensure prize use is guaranteed, an alternate winner will be drawn and contacted if no response by email is received by the first prize winner. Prizes will be mailed to the recipient(s) within 3 business days from confirmation of mailing address.

Winterscapes Awards Announcements

Awards for finalists will be selected and recipients will be notified of the selection by March 31, 2019. Award recipients and third-party nominators will be invited to attend the Edmonton in Bloom Awards ceremony in late summer of 2019.

Photo Gallery

All submitted photos will be uploaded to the City of Edmonton and YEG Parks Facebook pages for public viewing. Addresses will be used to identify winterscape locations. Once finalist awards have been announced, and recipients notified, photos within the gallery will be organized into award recipient categories. Winterscape photos of finalists will be used in promotions for the Front Yards in Bloom: Winterscapes 2020 promotional material.

Please Note

The City of Edmonton, the Edmonton Horticultural Society (EHS), and Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) reserve the non-exclusive rights to use any of the images submitted for any future internal or external communications, advertising, reports, marketing and online or print commercial applications for future promotions associated with Front Yards in Bloom, or WinterCity Edmonton.

The chances of being selected as a prize draw winner and/or being presented with a finalist or honourable mention award is dependent on the number of eligible submissions received.

Limitation of Liability

The City of Edmonton is not responsible for printing or typographical errors in any contest-related materials, or for stolen, lost, late, misdirected, damaged, incomplete, or illegible entries.

The City of Edmonton is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by website users or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the photo contest, or by any technical or human error that may occur in the processing of submissions to the photo contest.

If, for any reason, the photo contest is not capable of completion as planned, including but not limited to, infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of the City of Edmonton that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the photo contest, the City of Edmonton reserves the right at their sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the photo contest.

FOIP Message

Personal information is being collected by this program under the Authority of Section 33(c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act and will be used for administrative purposes of the City of Edmonton's Front Yards in Bloom: Winterscapes Photo Contest, to contact winners for the prize draw, and to notify recipients of the Winterscape Awards. Names and contact information provided will be used to verify entry information, to distribute awards, and to credit persons whose material is selected for publication where photo credit permission has been given by the photographer. If you have any questions concerning FOIP please contact City of Edmonton, Community Greening Coordinator at 780-496-4678. For program-related inquiries, please contact 311 or front.yards@edmonton.ca.